Hi, My name is Bobbi Mortimer i am at present studing for a BA Hons in Tourism Management and im in my final year which finishes June 2011. I am thoroughly interested in learning new languages ive previously carried out three placements abroad. Two in France and the other in Italy and loved all three although it was just the one in Italy i was teaching English to Italian children on a summer camp. I am thoroughly interested in taking a year out once ive finishe my course at university and am just looking on advice on which TEFL course is most appropriate for me and who it is that i contact in order to find out about taking partin a teaching placement as far away as possible next year, that is preferably paid. The reason i would like to do this too is i would like to do primary school teaching Scotland and want to do a post grad into primary school teaching but as i have no big amount of experience of working with children at the moment i feel that if i was successful in doing a placement next year i would not only recieve the experience but also will get a true feeling for what it is like to teach and if its definately what i would like to do. My long term plan for my career woul;d be to live in France or some other European country teaching English to foreign children or adults, but feel i will definately need to work for a few years in Scotland to get experince first as well. Sorry its such a long story and question but feel i have so much to ask and to hopefully look forward to but im just a bit confused on how to do so.

I'm confused too. You want experience abroad so that you can work in Scotland so that you can work abroad?

Whilst useful experience, TEFL teaching abroad does not help with the applications for primary PGCEs (at least in England, I know Scottish education is a bit different). It is much more useful to volunteer as a classroom assistant or similar in the UK

The most commonly recommended TEFL courses for someone with no teaching experience are Cambridge CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL and SIT TESOL Certificate

ok thankyou> i do want to live in France when im fully qualified but thought that in order to ba able to teach ther i would havt to have a few years of experience of teaching in Scotland. And i want to do a placement abroad to get a feel for what it will be like in a different country.

I live in France and have been teaching here for 15 years. It really depends on where you want to work: in the public education system, private schools for children, language schools for adults, business English language schools etc...

France is not the easiest country to TEFL in. You should basically forget the public schools because the education department are really only interested in teachers who have a french qualification and most of them have never heard of TEFL!

There is work in the bigger cities but the hours and pay are not great, I hear. You would have to work for a couple of schools and juggle contracts to be able to earn a full-time salary. It's a pity really because if ever there was a country in need of some serious English language learning, it'd be France.

I created and work for a non-profit organisation in the French Alps and it works well because Italian is taught in my region in schools, not English. Kids here only begin English when they're about 12 so there is a demand. I also live in a small town about 1OOkms away from the nearest metropole making people feel a little cut off from civilisation and very happy to have English lessons not far from home, like everything else. So, I suppose you could always try that if you decide on France as a TEFL destination!

You are right there is work in the bigger cities but the hours and pay are not great, I hear. You would have to work for a couple of schools and juggle contracts to be able to earn a full-time salary. I was looking this type of information. I like your all suggestion. Thanks for sharing this useful information..